Why is the Latin phrase: horror vacui commonly interpreted as: nature abhors a vacuum?
It may well be Aristotle's intended message, given the context, but it seems like a bit of a jump. Doesn't it? ...

The way I learned 'uter' and 'uterque' was as follows. 'Uter' is like the Greek 'πότερος', meaning (in interrogative uses) 'which, of two?' and (in non-interrogative uses) 'either, of two'. I learned ...

I asked a question earlier.
For some time now, it's occured to me that a pattern is forming: All my questions about the Latin language are basically the same. The subjects change, but the underlying ...

In the Python programming language, "yield" and "return" are keywords with specific meanings.
A function can either yield a result (sending that result back and then continuing to work), or return it ...

The adverbs (and prepositions) extra and ultra are somewhat similar but not identical.
While I can read the two dictionary entries and get an idea what they mean, I don't feel that I fully grasp how ...

I was recently taking a sort of multiple choice quiz on just general Latin knowledge, and I came upon one question that threw me for a loop, so to speak. The question asked which of the options best ...

The Spanish language has two words for kiss:
Beso, from Latin basium.
Ósculo, from Latin oscŭlum.
The second one is very seldom used, and only in literature as it is a cultured word. Nonetheless, it ...

There seem to be a lot of pairs of words in Latin where a "question" starts with qu- and the corresponding "answer" by t-.
For example: quot/tot, quantum/tantum, qualis/talis, quotiens/totiens.
The ...

What are the etymologies of the adjective latus ("wide") and the participle latus ("carried")?
I had assumed that they are the same and the participle just started a new life as an adjective after a ...

There is a legal thing called arbitration in modern world, and the Romans seem to have had the word arbitratio.
I wonder whether the modern arbitration and the Roman arbitratio (and the related words ...

I am looking for an example of a pair of adjectives or nouns (broadly defined) in classical Latin which mean the same thing but one is considered rude and the other one polite.
I could list several ...

Machine learning is a roughly method where a machine learns to perform a certain task by learning on its own.
The machine gains experience and can solve a very specific problem intuitively.
It is not ...

What would be a good Latin word for "women", "ladies", "female(s)", or the like when I want to indicate the gender designation of a sauna or a toilet?
In English I would choose "ladies", or perhaps in ...

There seems to be a large number of verbs derived from plere, all meaning "to fill" to some extent:
plere, supplere, complere, implere, explere, opplere.
I understand that replere means "to refill" ...

The words ira and furor are quite similar, but apparently not synonymous.
I found myself unable to give a clear comparison of the two words.
How would you describe the difference between the meanings ...

There is a difference between a citizen and a subject.
Roughly, a citizen holds some power in the state (through voting or otherwise), whereas a subject is subordinate to their leader and has no say.
(...

When giving suggestions to a recent translation question I could not decide between similis and par.
I realized that I don't understand the difference of the two sufficiently well.
They are obviously ...

The English word "resistance" is obviously etymologically related to resistentia, and I would like to understand how good of a translation resistentia.
To be clear, I mean resistance in the sense of a ...

There seem to be two Latin adjectives that mean "Asian": Asianus and Asiaticus.
The dictionary entries in Lewis and Short linked above suggest that the two adjectives are different, but no comparison ...